Wednesday, April 4, 2012

DPD Captain Pat Gannaway finger Oswald?

Dallas, Nov. 22 (UPI)- Police today seized Lee H. Oswald, identified as chairman of a "Fair Play for Cuba Committee," as the prime suspect in the assassination of President Kennedy. Police said Oswald, 24, was accused in the slaying of a Dallas policeman shortly after the shooting of the President.

Police Capt. Pat Gannaway said the suspect was an employee in the building where a rifle was found. Gannaway* said the suspect had visited Russia and was married to a Russian. This was not immediately confirmed.

*David Lifton Notes, 8/16/06: In retrospect, it now seems clear that Gannaway, of the DPD Intelligence Division, was an important player.

This was the first of the specialized departments. It operated under the command of Captain W. P. (‘Pat’) Gannaway who was supported by six Lieutenants, 34 regular Detectives, 14 Patrolmen who were temporarily assigned to the bureau and four female civilians (one stenographer and three clerk-typists). The 14 ‘temporarily-assigned’ men were what we in the UK would call Aides to CID or TDCs (Temporary Detective Constables). More of them shortly.

Captain Gannaway (at that time known as ‘Mr. Narcotics’) had been in charge of the notorious 1957 undercover operation and raid that culminated in stripper Candy Barr being arrested for possession of half an ounce of marijuana. For this offense, she was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, actually serving less than three years before being paroled.

Initially, I had some difficulty in working out what the Special Services Bureau actually did. I established that 18 officers, including Captain Gannaway and one of the female civilians, were mentioned in the Warren Commission 26 Volumes. Indeed, eight of them testified before the Commission and three of them had their names as titles of Commissoin Exhibits. Careful study of the appropriate testimony, together with other DPD documents in m passion enabled me to work out the purpose and responsibilities of the Special Service Bureau.

It was basically a covert surveillance and intelligence-gathering unit which, was well as the Criminal Intelligence Squad (CIS), included the Vice Squad and Narcotics Squad, etc. Its regular officers were plain-clothes detectives. The temporarily-assigned Patrolmen (who operated in plane clothes) were there for one of two reasons. Some were genuinely ‘on trial’ or undergoing training prior to being appointed full-time detectives. Others had been drafted in from the uniform branch to undertake basic covert surveillance work in areas where their faces would not be known. A similar system exists in the UK and probably other countries today.

The Warren Commission testimony of Lieutenant Jack Revill (who became Assistant Chief in 1982) is very revealing in describing the duties and responsibilities of the Special Services Bureau. He stated: “I am currently in charge of the criminal intelligence section.” Later he outlined the overall task of the bureau. “Our primary responsibility is to investigate crimes of an organized nature, subversive activities, racial matters, labor racketeering, and to do anything that the chief might desire. We work for the chief of police. I report to a captain who is in charge of the bureau – Captain Gannaway.”

Lieutenat Revill later indicated that he had been assigned to an investigative panel set up to determine how Jack Ruby had gained access to the City Hall basement where he had shot Oswald. This type of enquiry was obviously also the responsibility of the Special Service Bureau.

For a very revealing account of the functions of the CIS, see Philip H. Melanson’s article “Dallas Mosaic” published in the Third Decade, vol. 1, no 3, March 1985, pages 12-15. Among other things, Dr. Melanson mentions that “the spooky little unit was physically removed from the rest of the DPD and was headquartered in a building on the state fairgrounds.” (Vol. IV HSCA, 597.) The use of the word ‘spooky’ may or may not be a deliberate clue to something rather sinister.